Sara Firth says she can no longer work for the network because of its slanted
coverage

A British journalist working for Russia Today, the Kremlin-backed English language television channel, has resigned in protest at the network's biased coverage of the downing of the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet.

Sara Firth said she could no longer work for the network because of its slanted coverage and its insistence on blaming Ukraine for the disaster, before all the facts have been ascertained.

Russia Today has for years been accused of being a mouthpiece for the Putin government and of pursuing an aggressively anti-Western agenda.

Ms Firth, who was RT's London correspondent and had worked for the network for five years, said she was dismayed to see the network airing interviews with eyewitnesses who claimed that the downing of the plane was without a doubt the work of Ukrainian forces.

"How convenient that they found someone who was willing to blame the Ukrainian government," Ms Firth told The Telegraph.

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"The network's position was to immediately blameUkraine, and then back that up with everything else we did. This is such a volatile situation and that sort of misrepresentation is dangerous."

The bias against Ukraine was the last straw for her, she said.

"It was the final nudge for a decision that had been a long time coming.

"It's not just that they are pro-Russia, it's the fact that they are anti everyone else. They were wonderful to me for five years so I feel very sad.

"I know they're going to feel very betrayed but a lot of other people have left too. People resigned recently from our London office."

Miss Firth is by no means the first foreign journalist to resign from RT because of its strident anti-Western agenda and biased coverage.

In March this year Liz Wahl, a news anchor based in Washington, resigned on air over what she felt were the network's anti-US views.

She said she could not work for a channel that "whitewashed" the Russian military intervention in Crimea.

She told viewers: "I cannot be part of a network funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of Putin. I'm proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth, and that is why, after this newscast, I'm resigning."

In a statement following her resignation RT said Ms Firth had been planning to leave the station anyway. It added: "We show all sides of the story, even if everyone else has already decided which side is to blame."